90 Million Dollar Builder with Chris Baptista

So he's one Brisbane and Australia's young entrepreneur of the year . Three years in a row he's in Australia's top 100 young entrepreneurs . His biggest home to date is 1700 square meters a bit of a mega mansion . He started his own podcast this year . He's in the top 20 largest home builders in Queensland and he loves Mercedes-Benz cars .

So a massive warm welcome to Chris from CMA Homes . Thank you very much .

So that's how we are different and that's how we can keep like this of quality going , yeah , but it's a lot of work . That's a lot of work .

So , and just the few conversations we had on that trip was , I was really inspired by what you do and what you've achieved , and my mission is to create a new building industry where builders and tradies run great businesses and get freedom from their businesses and those types of things .

But also anyone thinking about building , a renovating , can get a bit of an insight into what builders actually do , what we have to deal with , all the knowledge we have to have all those types of things . So really , really appreciate you coming in and taking the time to talk through it .

So , like , can you tell us a little bit about how did you get started ? Like , how do you go from ?

The only things we subbed out was waterproofing , the electrical and the plumbing . Everything else we did Slab roofing , framing balls , rendering , painting , tiling , kitchen steak , the whole thing .

So as we grew and built more houses , yeah , we slowly started to sub it out . Obviously , we found out after the first three houses ceiling insulation is just too much work , so we started to sub it out . We started to sub it out of the plasterboard , the roofing we're still doing framing and all this and painting and tiling and kitchen and stone benched us .

We're still doing all those things for quite a long time . And yeah , the word got out there because we were building in North Lakes quite a small community , like at the time we started to get to know people that worked at Stockland and yeah , the word of mouth got out there that you know Sam was doing a good job .

We literally Madonna would smash houses in like 10 weeks , like it was just us . You know there was no other jobs , it was just this job .

I work seven days a week , but at first I would say probably six or seven years of CMA I took this like to a whole different level of like extreme where I would work seven days a week but I probably would work no drug easily 16 , 17 , 18 hours a day . This was my first like seven years . I had no relationship , no personal life , no , like nothing .

So like people see how far we've come but they also don't see where we started and when . You like . Cause , when we started to like ramp up and the word of mouth got out there , we started to get like 25 , 30 homes to build . I had no estimators , I had no draftee .

I was doing all the plans , I was doing all the estimating , I was doing all the billing , approvals , I was doing all the color selection , I was doing all the sales . I was doing fucking everything the supervision do . Yeah , my dad was there to self help .

Homebilling was I can do a full set of playing like ready for , like BA , you know I can . I can tell a full house and paint a full house and plaster for house , like you know . So this has been good because it's also brought up the sort of respect from trades when , when those trades that we've been using for years , they know where we come from .

I don't know it's . I think homebilling , like you know it's , it's a lot about relationships with suppliers and trades and when the trades respect . This is what I say to my side all the time . I said you got to get respect from your trades . You can't just say to someone you know , do this or do that , you got to get respect .

And for you to get respect you have to . You know , you have to earn it . Yeah , and I feel like I've earned my , my respect in that . That's a regard . It wasn't easy , but yeah .

Yeah , but when I say something , you know it's really true , I guess . So , look , I said a standard and , yes , it's high . But how I feel is , as the business owner , I feel like like a coach , right , and this is my team , and I have to say the , the , the sort of example , and I have to say the standard .

And if I said the standard low , this is what I spent to them . You know , my , my whole goal is for you to be the best at what you do . You know , same thing with the sides of us . You know how good does it feel to know that if someone wants to build , they want you to be the sides of us . How good does this feel like ?

And this is how I want everybody to feel . So , yes , I said a high standard , but I wish I could train more , like , obviously you did . It's hard with some . Once I think I've got a team of 45 now , so it gets a little bit hard .

But when you look at how much work it takes for a builder to build 10 , 20 , 50 homes , like it's a lot , a lot of work , and if they saw , if a client saw the work behind the scenes , like man , it's , it's incredible amount of work , incredible . And for everything to run as smooth as possible .

It never runs smooth , obviously , because it's home building , but for each one as smooth as possible , fuck it it is .

And that bothers me because I feel this is what I say you know , like they are sales company , you know they just sell houses connected with you , mate , because that's the way I look at all those builders .

It just comes down to care and I , I mean I love what I do and I think it shows and I think it's not just like a sell , like business , like again , most of look , it probably would have to be nearly all the . These are big builders .

then , before you know it , you turn 92 million and then and you got 45 stuff and like where did this come from , you know ?

So you know , if there's a hundred dollars spent here , I'm going to sit and I'm going to ask why , you know , and so I've been a bit hard on them , and they can see that and and and what I said to them in look , I'm the hardest person on me . You know , nobody's going to be harder on me than me .

And it's hard because , as much as I feel like I'm yes , I'm doing well and I won the young entrepreneur thing and all that I feel like I haven't started , like like I have just started . This is how I feel , you know . So I feel like I've only scratched this sort of surface .

I feel like we can always improve our customer service and we can always build better houses and how do you take ?

And again , you know we had phases where , like , my team is like , oh , you know we should do standard plans and all that , but I'm like we're gonna fall back in the same gap .

So you're at the like , you're at the premium end of a volume builder like no , we still got really good prices , like when we have a metric on or plantation court , usually we're pretty much on par . Yeah , we are pretty much on par . So . So , yeah , price was we're pretty much there . But we have the flexibility that you can do a custom floor plan .

You bring us a sketch , we'll do it . It's a lot of work , which is why those bills can't do it , because it's a lot of work , a lot of checking . Like I still treat his date , I still check every single plan , I check every single contract that goes out , because you need a bill set of eyes to actually look at it and see is this gonna work ?

You know , is the ? Is the pad height right , like you know , like some things . Yeah , it's hard and I see why they don't do it .

Obviously we come to too many , but I do like to take those special projects and , yeah , I don't know if you sort of beat up that one with a curved staircase with two curves . I guess that was . I think it was 850 square meter home and I took that on and that was a lot of fun .

But , for example , if I take our cabinet maker is fully scaled with us , does 100% of the CMA home . If I take our stone Mason when I met him , same thing . It was a really small , so Mason now it's got a huge factory , does 100% of the CMA work . So a lot of them have just scaled with us . And the new ones , yes , it's hard .

And I always say to my team like said the expectation , before he even starts the job set the expectation . This is a critical part . If they don't know what you expect , and if they don't know what you expect , it's never going to work out .

So , yes , there's standards which we have to obey to , but , yeah , you know , you can only push it so far . How she still all built by hand and don't expect something because it's just not going to happen , I guess .

So sometimes you have to just set the expectation and at all stage of the bill I said to myself Tim , you got to set the expectation at sale stage , start to providers when they meet a client , set your expectation at that stage and just just keep going as you go .

The worst thing you can do is just not set anything and then it's just do allow clients to do site visits during the build ? Yes , but usually again workplace health and safety and all the stuff . So they normally have to be with the sites of Vasa . So we have a few compulsory meetings .

So we got frame stage , tile stage and PCI and obviously they want to see the house at any point in time . Just just give us a call or I send us an email .

You know blah , blah , blah and I like , look , if they want to come every week , it's probably going to help you out because they're probably going to pick on things because it's their house . They got that one job , you probably got 15 .

They're going to pick on things that you won't pick and it's going to save your time , you know , by the time you get to the end of the build . So for me , I mean , I like it . I just I would rather meet clients really often every week . This is my preference . I know it's hard for us .

Yeah , that's it , but if I if , if I had like a few jobs , I would love to meet my clients every week and go through a house and , just , you know , make sure they're good with everything . And because I feel it's true , I mean again , they are spending that much money on a house that you can't just let it sit like this .

You know you want to see it like . You know , you want to see it get a build , and this is the whole excitement .

going to happen in handover ? How are we going to do it ? We do a defects walkthrough , all that sort of thing , because so many builders just like .

That's sort of PCI inspection , yeah , and you really do have to set the expectation because the last thing you want is , true , like a client is going to go like mental with a blue tape and just take the whole house and so you know , and it's , it's a fun one . It's actually quite a bit of work .

You set the right expectation without sanding like you're trying to avoid things like you know it's but I feel again , I say to my team just be really transparent when , when there's a mistake , you know , be honest , you know , don't try to hide things and and it will go fine , you know , yeah , so so do you ?

But it's the best way . This is why I said to them once you paid that sort of invoice we can have all the terms and conditions and blah , blah , blah . If it's , if it's an existing trade , it's gonna be fine , it's nice and easy . You just call them and you know they come back .

If it's a new trade that we may not have necessarily used , it's a lot more work to actually get them back to actually fix it . But she leave day busy and you know they don't really want to come back . So usually my main thing is check the actual work , check for sort of defects , send a list like that , submit that says you know the ground he's missing .

Expansion joints here not done . Once this is done we will release the , the SR payment .

I do my least . Once I've checked , I can go on to organizing , like schedules and all that . But I found where , where site supervisors or also bill was fail is because they just don't pay attention .

So , if it's an average home , yes , you still need to check , but it's not as bad . But by silly checking , checking , checking I'm a checking freak Like I'd rather check because I don't want to have to have the issue later on Once it's plastered . And what's ? His brick or sort of heave old . It's so much more work .

Number two like it's my name on it , like that , that's right , that's right , I love the fact that you just said before you you pay weekly .

You know when they got their crews and you know they , you know some of those trades don't necessarily do that well , they don't necessarily know how to manage a business that we're talking about , and I think that that that so weekly payment , is what's allowed us to keep those trades .

Like I'm not that type of person . I couldn't walk away and I say this to like a lot of people to like I need to sleep at night . And for me to sleep at night , I need to know everybody's paid and I'm fine .

I need to know those houses are built as good as possible , because once you get to the volume and you've got that many houses , you've got that many clients , you've got that many staff and trades , like it's a lot of pressure to cope with all this stuff , I guess .

So for me to actually be able to sleep well and to make sure all the boxes are ticked , and for me , like I need to know that those trades are paid on a weekly . You've done your work , you completely deserve to get paid and I can have my sleep and I'm good yeah .

Like you know , I'm a sucker for that and I think if you want to be really good at what you do and if you want to grow your , your sort of business , try to really become the best at it . What's going to make you a really good builder ?

If , if , if you build your sort of knowledge and you can answer pretty much any question a client's going to have , you're going to be winning , and then that reputation is going to grow and that people are going to know that you are the shit you know , you know what you're talking about , you know how to build a good house , and so knowledge for me is number

one . I say this to myself too . I say you know , you have to know what you're talking about . You can't sell a house if you don't know what a Waffa Pots lab is , or you don't know what an M or H2 class soil is Like you know .

So I feel that knowledge for me is number one and I mean I love knowledge and I think if you grow your knowledge , you know personal development seminars , like whatever . Yeah , I feel you're going to become a much , much better so builder , because really your entire , your team , your contractors , your , your clients .

like you know . I feel if you have a business and you are a homebillow , you have to have the mentality of sort of whatever it takes . I feel you can't say , oh , this is not my job . If someone says to me this is not my job , it's the worst thing you can say to me .

Because I go on site , I make clean or toilet that's got skid marks on the side , Like you know , I will do whatever it takes . I don't care , as long as the house is good . This is my number one priority . So yeah , phil , you know you , you really have to be hands on , I feel and there's .

And , yes , you can have the systems in place and yes , you can have like everything in place , but unless it's a perfect system , which is never like a possible thing , you know , it's just won't run as good as I wanted to to run .

And when you're trying to grow a business and when you're trying to build a reputation and everything , I feel like you have to be hands on . I feel like for me , there's no other way . I couldn't just be in the office , sit on the chair and just have to be in the office , out in , out , in out . Like , yeah , today I was in Palm Beach the whole day .

It's where the starts of our zah touching up the whole house , you know , because there's a few things that you know . Again , it's homebuilding . What trade do you get to fix this ? Yeah , don't know , you know so .

So , yeah , we're fixing all the small things and I feel , if I didn't put in that effort today with a size of browser , yes , it's hard work , but I can't going to be happy and I glance going to be talking to other people about how good he was to build with CMA and that the owner was there all day with a size of browser to actually fix all the small

things in the house to make sure they really , really happy .

I mean , it's not that big like in itself where you know a client's going to walk through and have a quick look and you know , oh , I'm going to build with CMA because I got an ourselves . It's mostly word of mouth , the sort of repetition we have , and this is all linked to the social media , the YouTube and all this .

And since I was a kid , I used to love I don't know , I used to love , you know , business and success and motivational stuff and all that sort of stuff . And on top of that , not sure how it comes from I can't figure it out to this day but my dad was a builder back in France .

Because I come from France and and ever since I was a little kid , because he had a really small carpentry business , every single opportunity I would get I would go to work with him , and you know some kids play soccer someplace . As me , the happiest was going to work with my dad . Weekend nights doesn't matter .

Get me to work with my dad and I'm going to be super happy . So I feel this is what I say to most people . I feel like in the current society people don't don't get to understand that work is good , like there's nothing wrong with it . Like you know , work is good , like I love what I do .

And if I wasn't like working at Arsenal , what else I would do ?

So one of the things we so in in LiveLockville where we train builders and stuff , so we talk a lot about one of the first things we do when we get a member is we have this overhead calculator , we get them to understand their numbers and we've had a number one hundreds , hundreds of builders do this now .

Number one thing probably had tools for you that have been close . And so we talk through their numbers , we get them understanding their running costs or overheads , then we get them understanding their salaries and then they're adding their company profit on , and the first thing when we figure out those numbers is like fuck , I'm never going to win another job .

How can I ? How can I put that margin on my job ? And so then we do these exercises and Nicole Hathley from Brandtree North has been incredible . She's done some professional sessions with us that we got in our platform and she talks like what you just talked about .

So to set yourself apart and I think you're doing it without knowing it , but you have to you need to have to be different , deep and find out where that passion is coming from . And , like , just listen to your story , I feel like there's a connection there with you and your dad , like I'm sure .

But when you can find that passion , that like those beliefs , those cultures , those values , those opinions , all those things , when you nail that and I think you're obviously doing it that is when you attract clients that everything's just a great expect , like a great process , great relationship 100% .

I know I got a great person , I know I got a great home , I'm sold on it , so it's so much easier to sell my soft client . You know so . But yeah , it's quite funny what you said with that thing and all that . Yeah , it sort of makes sense now and yeah , yeah .

And like that's the last thing you want to say because you want to have a spill that separates you from the guy next door or the guy down the road , Like you want people to come to you because they want who you are . That's right .

You know , I don't really care about copying this or copying a promotion . I hate promotions Like . This is another thing I hate . It's like why do you have to do a promotion ? Like my product is good , I don't need no promotion . Why should I do one when all the other builders are doing free sort of talk today or sort of whatever ? Like I don't need it .

You know , and I felt one of the number one things why we are successful is we are different . There is no doubt about it .

, yeah , so I would go around with him as a kid , pass him school drivers and stuff and he would fix my dad's . Yeah , he can fix anything , because you're at your moment , dad's still working in business don't you . Still working in business . So my dad's obviously on site , you know , checking things and helping with anything .

Again , my dad's mindset is do whatever it takes . We are like literally again . Another small example like you know , people may see the size of this or business but they don't see what we do . But yesterday I was on a tight job . We had a plusable delivery Besides of us , sort of away , and there was a pile of shit and a brand new bin .

I'm like we can't leave it like that . So my dad and I are putting all the shit into the bin . It took us about two hours . Bin was full , called for a new bin . But this is the sort of stuff I think , yeah , you just have to work hard and you have to like care about your stuff . But I can't go to a site and sit like that and just leave it .

I just can't do it . Yeah .

So I'm trying to train them to so say , some of them have seen have been pranks , uh , driveways before the port styling is done . I'm like look , guys , I don't mind if you do it , but you got to make sure that you know you're left with a tall thickness .

You put a piece of first coating , you know , along the edge , you check for squares , and the list goes on . And some of them were like oh shit , I haven't done my last one , or shit , I'll make sure on the next one . So I sort of see what they do and I try to train them based on what I see .

So sometimes you know at first , when they knew in the start , they think it's a little bit of a micromanaging type of thing , which I guess it depends how you look at it . I don't necessarily look at it that way , but some may . But for me it's about helping them and helping them Like I've built I don't know 2000 homes by now .

I don't know what's going to go wrong . Trust me , like you know , if you don't do it it will go wrong . It's going to be much , much harder for you , you know . So , um .

So I try to train them , like all the time , and um try and try to train them to actually make make their life easier , uh , even with a scheduling and sort of all this Do you do any ?

Um , it's fine if we didn't have much work , but because we got that much work , it's just too hard . So I got , um , I got two persons in the office . That's there . Their full job is just truly is well , our clients and so the sous-trovises come in the office . They update them , they account on invoicing and everything that needs to get done .

I sit down with them , have a chat . What's the issues ? Slabs haven't been good lately , or whatever you know , and I should look at all the issues . I go on my side and sort them out , and then we meet again and we go through this every single week , because every single week there's something different .

One week maybe , oh , there's nothing wrong this week , but you know it's highly unusual .

So I'm always super proactive in trying to find solutions to the problem before it goes too far Because , again , home building what people have to realize things go so quick , mistakes are very quick and very expensive and you really want to avoid them . From a client's point of view or from a Bella's point of view , you want to avoid it .

Again , it's just me being really high expectation , I guess . But Contrament was the previous question , I guess .

So there's a frame inspection and there's a funnel inspection . So frame stage again one of the most crucial ones , obviously you don't wanna miss anything . So he goes around , checks everything , does a full report , sends that to the boys and the boys send that to their own trades and just make sure everything is done .

He will pick on the things that I would pick , and so I try to have my sets of eyes in there so that I can try to see what's wrong and when it's to be fixed . So this is quality wise . I guess I try , and I haven't been able to do it as much as I would , but I normally try to do every single handover .

Again , it's another thing that makes us different . You know , we go all out .

Then I can just make sure everything is all nicely set up and then ideally , whenever possible , meet the year client . We build that many homes . I don't get to meet that many clients . I probably meet , I would say , maybe 20% of the year clients we build with , whether at sales stage or when it's a complicated job or anything like that .

But meeting them at handover provides me with direct feedback and for me it's really important . Like sometimes you don't wanna hear it , but the sales flow was construction not that good ? And if I hear directly from this of client , to me it's like the best , best thing .

So usually I try to do a handover and just have a chat with the client and even if sometimes what I find , even if construction or somehow the whole process wasn't the best , for some reason , I feel like this is what I say to my team you know , when you go to a restaurant , right , and the meal wasn't that great , dessert wasn't that great .

But the chef comes out . The chef has a chat to you . You can see how much the chef cares and he explains and he may reset your sort of expectation that you had .

That nobody maybe reset really well , like along the way , and I feel you're gonna walk out of that restaurant feeling much , much , much sort of better because you know that that company actually cares . And the worst thing to me is when people think we don't care . I hate hearing this , god I'm like .

But if you see how much we care and how hard we go to make sure those homes are as good as possible , you would be mind blown , like mind blown .

But he quit his job , asked someone to provide him with work . They said yes . Boom , he was in , set up his own business . At the same time bought a house . So it was a pretty cheap home , so really avoided the whole house on weekends .

I used to help him out , obviously , and that's how I learned how to plaster , how to paint , how to do concreting , like the whole thing . But as a kid I wanted a pool and my dad , obviously no money , there's no access . That house was your boundary , both ways , no access . And my dad's like okay , you want a pool . And like my dad's , a full cycle .

Like when you tell him like something , he's like me , he loves a challenge . And so the story goes . I don't know cause I was a kid , but the story goes that I grab a shovel and I sat there for the pool and my dad took it seriously and he started like to dig the actual pool and like when you're a kid , you just don't realize .

I think about it now I'm thinking , wow , this is the next level . And took him a year to dig the whole pool because he was doing like on weekend cause he was working hard with his business and all that .

So we dig a little bit , spread the soul like around the yard , dig , spread the soul around the yard and after a full year the whole was dug , port of Slab . He did the blockwork , he did the reinforcement , he did the rendering , he did the tiling , he did the grounding and we had a pool .

You know , well , there's luck , but you're creating it . Yeah , yeah , that's right .

This is what was hard when I started CMA , I guess , when I started that business and I had no businesses , I just knew nothing about some business and the first people I actually employed I was expecting like a certain standard , you know , and it wasn't happening and I was like shit , you know what's all people retired Like ?

What the fuck is going on , you know . And I had to learn . You know you have to have procedures and you have to have this and you have to have this and now .

I didn't have no data build , none of that . I'm like those are all my spreadsheets , you know , it works really well . He looked at me as like , look , there's data build . It's much easier . You know , I've got it . He had no procedure , he had nothing and he sort of rolled with it and send him with your drafting and sending with all that .

So a lot of CMA was just every single day and see how we go . And

yeah , I literally had no idea about procedures , I had no idea about systems , I had no idea about none of those things and we just learned how we grew .

And yeah , still , the Satsupvasa I was with today was our first Satsupvasa a bit like a brother to me , I guess , and we used to make fun of it because when he was our first Satsupvasa and at one point on his own , with our sub-aziv , we had about 50 homes under construction and he got that intense that we forgot about houses .

We had houses that we were like billing and I just said what's happening with this house ? And he's like I have no idea . And we checked it out and for like six weeks the house just sat , you know , and he just like , yeah , when you grow , like you're so business , you learn .

And it's like I think back all the things I've learned , all the things I've done , and it's my blowing and I wish I had someone like , for example , you that could have taught me you know all those things .

I'm so thankful I have my mom in the accounts , because I don't look at the numbers and my dad don't look at the numbers . We're not interested . I'm not the money side of things . I don't know how much money's in the account .

I don't care how much money's in the account , but my mom is the one that's really good at this and luckily we discovered what cash flow was . When we doubled year after year and we're like there's no money in the account , I was like shit , how come ? Like you know , there's profit in the house . I don't get it . You know .

And you just learned that , yeah , you can make a profit , but if you don't get paid fast enough , your cash flow is gonna be out . And they were like shit . We gotta chase invoices , you know . And you just don't know when a client used to be late for two or three weeks . And , like you know , like it's all good . Like you know , don't stress about it .

And now I know that it's not good . You know How'd you pay that invoice on time , you know . So we just learned as we grew , and it was a battle . It was a battle , yeah , basically because I had no business experience . I had never worked for a builder here . I had done none of that . So all that was new , I guess .

I'm like , okay , looking online , I found that software was called Chief Architect Don't know that 5K . I'm like , okay , it's an investment , all right . How to do a plan . I'm starting to draw lines , everything . I'm like , fuck , I gotta do a full set of plan . Like it's hard .

And so what I used to do , because I had never worked for an architect , I had never even seen a full set of plan . This is maybe sound a little bit sauce , I guess , but I used to go on site . I used to go on a plantation home job site . The plans used to be in the sort of middle boxes . I used to grab that plan .

Do we have to cut this part out ? I don't think we do . I don't think we do , fuck it . And I used to look at the plans and see what's on their plan so that I know exactly what needs to be on my plan , so that I can get like a BA . And so the first BA I actually

sent to the certifier which I think was PCG , I think was my first set of plan I had ever done and I had never sent a plan to like BA , I hadn't even done like nothing like that , and the plan got approved . I was like , yes , so it just should just look for the information .

This is what I hate the most , sometimes Even stuff that ask how do we do this ? Look for it , it's not that hard . We've got internet , we've got Google , we've got YouTube , we've got podcasts . It's not that hard . All the information you want you can find . You don't even need to employ people .

There's people that are way , way smarter than me , but I love what I do and I want to get ahead and I will do whatever it takes to get ahead .

But like , obviously now you've got designers in your business and things because . I do . Well , the proofs in the pudding .

I'm looking at it . If I had to do it again , I would do the same thing , because it told me how to draw plans and the knowledge you've gained from doing everything over the years .

So every single client I come with a sketch , I would draw that sketch , give that to sales to price it up and then give that to the drafting team to actually sell . So , but yeah , probably to like a year . I would do all those plans every single day . I would smash that concept plan .

And I got so quick at it I smashed like a single story plan in half an hour . Boom , smashed that two story . So you have some pretty pretty like intense designs on your socials , yeah yeah , and look my house which I built maybe well , I started maybe two years ago 1,050 square meter home .

I drew the full plan myself , full , full plan , the elevation drawing the whole lot . So yeah , and I feel , as a builder , even if you don't want to draw plans , that's cool , but learn how to do it , you'll get a much different perspective about building and see how a draft he actually thinks , so that you can tell them the right information .

Don't skip it like , yeah , it's looking good . Now every single page . Spend time on it . Documentation is everything isn't it Everything ?

It's just way , way too hard and I don't wanna go back there . So I don't know . Yeah , so was it too hard to have a less when you did we did . We did because the prices go up . Price price , yeah , went up quite hard . But yeah , one year we punched out 400 homes , which is mental , but I don't wanna go back there .

It was too hard , it's just too hard . And as a bow you gotta find your sweet spot , and where I'm currently at , maybe a little bit smaller , is my sweet spot . So then the rest I'd love to do more developments . I love really complicated space homes , like huge space homes . I love that stuff .

Like what does a Brighton does is what I yeah , we're talking about that a little bit more . Oh my God , I love that shit like basements and rooftop and pull on the roof , like I love that .

You will never learn that much from the standard homes , but when you do that complicated homes , suspended slab , basement , pull here you're gonna learn so much , so much . So purely from a learning point of view , they are worth doing those jobs here .

I was training like three hours a day , so I over train , but for me it was a mindset thing , it wasn't necessarily the work .

I mean , yes , I love boxing and all that , but as a person I feel you need to always push yourself and the more stress you can handle and the more you push yourself , the better you are going to be in your personal relationship , in your business , like in all areas of life .

So my whole goal was I wanna push myself , I'm gonna do it and had you done any type of fighting before I had done maybe two years of Muay Thai when I was like a teenager , and but no fighting , yeah , nothing , just like as a , I guess as a teenager you know .

So it's a bit more like , you know , for the people that are a bit more hyped , and well , yeah , yeah , of course , I'd love to you join a fighters club . And it's like , oh , there's a fight that's coming up March 11th , like do you wanna do it ? And you're like , oh , that actually sounds pretty cool , like you know .

And I said yes , and from that point you are committed . So from that point I went doing my workout , the diet I have learned so much . I went down to 5.3% body fat . I was raped as , I was fed as and overtrained .

So I took it too far because that's just me , and I lost my fight , got two so broken ribs , but zero regrets and I highly recommend to anybody that wants not necessarily it doesn't have to be martial arts , but even the breathing thing we did with the ice jumping in ice do it because it's great .

But so a mutual friend of mine and Chris's so it's the guy that went to Mount Everest with five years ago now and I think he actually sent it to me . Like he knows , I've been doing a bit of breathing with one of the other guys that come to Everest and I think he sent it to me as a bit of a joke like hey , do you want to go to this ?

And as a bit of a joke . I sent back oh good , I've already booked it . And so he's like holy fuck , I was just joking , but anyway , so long story short me . A couple other mates and Chris come along , and I think you were pretty open minded with it , but a couple other guys were a bit skeptical about it .

We went to the one down at Mount Kosioske unbelievable weekend , I agree , I agree , but you look at it , it was a 22 or 24 people or something in our group and so like cold water immersion , walking in the snow in a box of shorts , but a lot of breathing exercises and mate out of the whole group , you had the craziest stories .

Yeah , I remember now actually . Oh shit . So Chris got the name of the French .

But it's true , have an open mind , try it and yeah , like shit , yeah but didn't like it .

and , yeah , four of you hadn't really done any of it and some of the things that come up and experiences and things were pretty out there .

And yeah , I mean again , I did nothing I would see , nothing I did like even with the ass . It's true like you are a little bit scared too and like there's no point , like in lying and say , oh , I wasn't scared to jump in the ass . No , like it's cold , you gotta take everything off , you gotta jump in the ass . He's like shit you know like .

And at first you do it and you're a bit scared and you jump again and you're good you know .

But if you can learn how to cope with it breathing ice bath , like anything , you know if you can learn how to and we are all going to be different what's gonna work for you may not work for me , but in general the things work for like everyone , like this or breathing and all this .

So if you can learn how to cope with it , I feel your life's gonna be so much easier . And I see , like even START stress and trace stress . I had one that had a massive stress attack and I was trying to like teach him , you know , breathe like at night , do a bit of some meditation . You know , the main thing is don't let it get you .

You know , and I think too many people let it get it to them and they just stress so much and I don't have that . So , yeah , all those things help massively .

I mean , I'm not into the thing and I'm not a druggy but learning about it because , again , you have to have an open mind . You know what if you could discover more about yourself ? I don't know , I've never done it , but I want to know about it . And then it's up to me to say yes or no . I want to try or no , you know so .

It was weird , it wasn't the second time there was some women , yes , some ladies .

six weeks ago , some weeks ago he wasn't really .

The ice bath Call show doesn't cut it , but the ice bath have been missing and , funny enough , like on the way here I was seeing because I was tired . I was driving like it's a two hour drive . I'm selling a little bit of time . I'm thinking I wonder if Dwayne's got an ice bath because that jumped in before the actual podcast . You know .

But then , as as soon as I finished my Muay Thai comp , um , I was so focused on the work to the point where it's not healthy , um , and I know that I'm yeah , because I know myself now , but , um , and it's still to that point now I know I would just work way way too much .

So I know I gotta find a hobby and , for example , I know trans pushing me with these sort of mini things , but I know it's going to be good luck for me if I do it , because it takes me away from work . And sometimes we think that working a lot is beneficial . And I like to say , you know , yes , just on the extent .

But I even find it with myself that sometimes there's just no point . You become like a point where you are just not not productive , yeah , and you'd rather chill , get your brain chill , do something else racing or like whatever , and um , and and come back like , uh , focus again . And for for me , this is the biggest thing learning to not work as much .

I don't like and he said like I don't like fishing , I don't like cows , I don't like , like all this other stuff .

It's true , I love my job , I love my team , I love coming to the office and even if there's problems and I fix it , you know it makes you feel good , like it makes you alive , it makes you brain tick Like got my parents there , like it's just good , like you know , yes , there's going to be problems , but at the end of the day I think , yeah , this is

what drives me like an it's an unbelievable feeling when you get to a point where , because I'm not as like I'm driven , I don't with the kids and stuff .

But it's all a mindset thing , I think it really is , and I say this to so many bills . I've had quite a few cheapies that used to work for us and have set up their own like building things , and then do maybe 10 , 15 homes a year and I said to them charge more , you are worth it . You're a small builder , you got quality .

You can't charge this price Like don't do it , oh , but I'm scared I'm going to lose the job , sell yourself , sell yourself . Tell me what you tell them , what you just told me , how much you love it , you know . But I think they're just scared and it's hard because I used to have that too .

Obviously , like you just get to put the price up and you feel bad about it , but it's a business . If you don't have a business , and you can't have stuff and it just doesn't work .

is the same with home billing . So I just don't see why , why we can't charge what we should be charging and I still don't think we are charging where we should be charging for the amount of work we actually put into the houses , whether it's a small bill or also whatever . I feel we are still not charging enough .

You want a chef to come and talk to you . You know , like , think about this , like , don't try to think of the client as a client , try to think of it as a special client . You know you got to blow them away .

I'm like , look , I should not say this , but you should charge more , you really should charge more , like it's too cheap , like you know . So I think sometimes they don't realize they feel bad . And man , it's a business , it's true . You have to have an income , it's normal .

How ?

That's been through everything that you're going through with all that you want to avoid and just skip everything to get to the good part .

feel again , if I had to look at that 15 years of of CMA , if I had someone that could show me even a little bit not even everything , but a little bit I would have saved half of that time easily .

But again , you just don't know , you just don't pay attention and yeah , if , if , if I had to redo it all again , I would find someone that had done it and just learn from and learn the

, the , the systems you know , learn , learn all those things , learn about cash flow you know like , learn about after you get a good accountants Nobody told me you have to get a good solicitor . Nobody told me this , you know .

You just , you just expect things and I feel sometimes it's it's true , I'd say you got to spend money to make money and if you spend that little bit which is not even usually a big investment , with the coach and the seminars and all that , but it's not even that much , but the return I can so give you is is huge , it's huge .

And I've learned that , I guess later on , I guess as I grew this of business , and I've learned that , you know , I got a listen to the accountant or when he does a seminar , I really should go because I can learn something , because there's always something new , do you ?

I love socializing with people that are similar minded and I can that .

I'm sure you can learn from me and I can learn from you , and I think , no matter who you are and what sort of business you have , you can learn , and so I really do enjoy all this of networking . I got to do more and , yeah , particularly with the people I trained , and you I mean Trann's a fantastic guy Like we need to get Trann on .

We've been trying to get him for a while , yeah , he , because , again , you're trying to train to someone and those are the people that I love the most , where they are not showing off . They are not some the rich or some the they , some of that , they are just genuine my trainers .

And the owner of ball living more I like it , cool . It's got a much bigger business than me , I get it , but it didn't start from scratch , like me , but that's fine , cool . And then I didn't apply . The year after that , I was just grinding my business . I was just grinding .

And the year after that I applied One and , which was great surprise , I won the Brisbane one . And this is how much I thought I was going to win . Because then there's the Australian one . I think there's no chance . I'm not even going to go to the events , no chance . And I get an email saying I won the Australian one . I'm like this cannot be real .

Like I said to my mom look , I've won the Australian young entrepreneur . This can't be real , you know .

And because sometimes you don't look at yourself and you , you're confident , yes , but you don't necessarily look at how well your business is doing and you don't think you can do it , and so I won the Australian one , and then next year I self applied and and I won again , and last year I won again , and yeah , so this is how it sort of rolled out and it's

pretty cool .

I want to show , like my parents , that you know , like I've done it , you know , so yeah .

People request a lot and sometimes I'm getting told that I'm too too honest and too transparent , particularly when I talk about the other big billers and the QBCC and all that stuff . So , but yeah , I think people like it . I think nowadays there's a lack of of transparency .

I think too many people try to be fake and I try to be as transparent and as straightforward as I can . So , yeah , podcast on YouTube , homes by CMA website and six display homes and an office in North Face and a new one about to get started , hopefully soon .

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